This invention relates in general to pivot joint constructions and in particular to a new and useful selfadjusting pivot joint with an axial play particularly for motor vehicles.
A similar pivot joint is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,227. These are special pivot joints for the running gear elements or such parts in motor vehicles which must be joined together swinging without radial play, or in similar fashion able to turn, but at the same time able to change their axial distance from each other. The conical mounting of the bearing in the conical housing configuration with the prestressed helical spring between a cover of the housing and the front face of the, bearing contiguous with the base of the cone, automatically affords a regulation for wear, so that there can be no free play. To prevent the pivot from falling out of the bearing axially, the pivot has an outwardly projecting shoulder at its free end, and the pivot with its threaded stem for fastening the parts, is previously placed in a roughcast housing, open at the rear, and the open end of the housing is then closed by means of a cover, which is secured by a flanged rim, and which compresses the spring between itself and the bearing, so that the shoulder of the pivot is axially movable between the cover and the front face of the bearing, directed toward the cover. This defines the required axial play and at the same time protects aginst loss of the pivot. The patent shows a configuration whereby the pivot carries at its free end a process that is thinner than the diameter of the pivot, whose front face at the free end together with the inner surface of the cover form stops which limit the axial play.